You may have heard of the Great Escape. You may have seen the 1963 Hollywood movie starring Steve McQueen as a United States Air Force officer named Virgil Hilts – the “Cooler King”. And if you’ve seen the movie, you may think that the story is a British and American story.

But it’s not. It’s a British and Canadian story. There were no Americans in the North Compound at Stalag Luft III near Sagan (now Zagan), Poland, when the mass breakout occurred. Rather, most of the officers in the compound were members of the Royal Air Force (RAF), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) and the South African Air Force (SAAF). Others hailed from nations such as Greece, Norway, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Belgium and France.

On the night of March 24-25, 1944, 76 men managed to get outside the wire through a tunnel code-named “Harry”. In the aftermath of the Great Escape, 50 of the escapers were covertly and illegally murdered by the Gestapo acting on a direct order from Hitler. Six of the dead were Canadians. Only three escapers made a “home run” – getting away and returning to their home countries; the remainder were returned to the prison camp. And that’s why the commander of the RCAF, Lieutenant-General Yvan Blondin, and other Canadians were at the site of Stalag Luft III on March 24, along with representatives of other allied nations, to mark the 70th anniversary of The Great Escape.

Lieutenant-General Blondin spoke to the assembled group and laid a wreath at the spot where “Harry” opened to the surface of the ground outside the wire at Stalag Luft III.

Others who participated in the ceremony included Group Captain David Houghton, RAF, British defence attaché; Major-General Jan Sliwka, head of the Polish Air Force Inspectorate; Air Commodore (retired) Charles Clarke, president of the RAF Prisoners of War Association; Mr. Daniel Marchewka, mayor of Zagan; Mr. Robin Barnett, British ambassador to Poland; and Air Vice-Marshal Stuart Atha, air officer commanding 1 Group, RAF. Military representatives from Canada, the Czech Republic, Greece, New Zealand, Lithuania, South Africa, Great Britain, France, Slovakia, Australia, Norway and Belgium read out the names of the dead.

Several other Canadians also attended the ceremony, including members of the families of Flight Lieutenant Keith Ogilvie and Flying Officer Gordon Kidder, both of the RCAF. Flight Lieutenant Ogilvie escaped from Stalag Luft III but was recaptured and went on to serve in the RCAF for 18 years after the war. Flying Officer Kidder was recaptured and was one of the 50 Allied airmen murdered by the Gestapo.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Adamson and Chief Warrant Officer Mario Roussel from 405 Long Range Patrol Squadron – “Pathfinders” – located at 14 Wing Greenwood, Nova Scotia, were part of the RCAF contingent. They honoured the daring, the bravery and the execution of one of their own: Flight Lieutenant James Chrystall “Jerry” Wernham of 405 Squadron, RCAF. “They took it seriously, their responsibility to escape,” explained Lieutenant-Colonel Adamson. “People had tried, in ones and twos, but it was the audacity of this effort: two years of tunnel digging, getting rid of dirt, making air pumps – it was a testament to their ingenuity.

“They expected to get caught, but the goal was to get as many people as possible after them. It’s estimated one million people were diverted from the German war effort to find them, so they had an effect.” The idea to build tunnels to break out of Stalag Luft III was conceived by RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bushell in the spring of 1943. One of his most important co-conspirators was RCAF Flying Officer Wally Floody from Chatham, Ontario, who has become known as the architect of the Great Escape. Flying Officer Floody worked in the mining industry at Kirkland Lake, Ontario, which gave him the expertise he needed in the prison camp to survey, design and engineer the tunnels. According to his obituary, his role in the project was so highly valued that the camp’s leaders forbade him to join an earlier escape attempt with a delousing party. “We need you for the tunnels,” he was told.

Shortly before the breakout, he was moved to a nearby camp – Beria. The German guards had become suspicious, but they didn’t find “Harry”. Flight Lieutenant Floody thus survived the war; he gave evidence at the Nuremberg Trials, founded the Royal Canadian Air Force Prisoners of War Association and later became an advisor on the film set of “The Great Escape”. King George VI also made him an officer of the Order of the British Empire for his “courage and devotion to duty”. Dozens of men laboured to build three escape tunnels. The work was dangerous and difficult, and the structures were extremely complex with sophisticated electrical and ventilation systems. The prisoners became experts at scrounging and re-using materials – for instance, powdered milk cans were turned into ventilation shafts. Others forged false identity papers and tailored uniforms and blankets into civilian clothing. Some subverted German guards, and thus obtained illegal materials. Others stood watch as the work went on, and more were “penguins” – distributing excavated sand throughout the camp using special bags hidden inside their trousers that could be opened with drawstrings to let the sand trickle out.

One of the tunnels, “Dick”, was deemed unsafe and abandoned. The tunnel code-named “Tom” was discovered by camp guards in September 1943. All work then focussed on completing Harry, which was planned to end in the woods outside the camp wire.

But the tunnel entrance fell slightly short of the woods and the escapers were discovered after only 76 of the designated 200 men got out.

After the discovery of Harry and the murder of 50 of the escapers, the prisoners in Stalag Luft III started digging again. The fourth tunnel, “George”, had a different purpose. The prisoners were afraid that if the prisoner of war camp was overrun by Soviet forces, either German guards or Soviet soldiers would “take out their frustrations on the kriegies [prisoners],” according to author Ted Barris.

“We decided to use ‘George’ to store [weapons and equipment]. The tunnel was considered to be our after-Soviet occupation outlet, our last survival exit,” he quotes Flying Officer George Sweanor as saying. George was never used as the Germans evacuated the camp in advance of the Soviet forces, sending the prisoners on the brutal and deadly “Long March” before rehousing them in other camps. In 2011, archaeologists excavated George, finding artefacts such as a prisoner-built radio and lamp, trenching tools and an intact ventilation shaft made of powdered milk cans.

“In 32 years of service, [being at the commemoration ceremony at Stalag Luft III] was the cherry on top for me; who doesn’t know about ‘The Great Escape?’” said Chief Warrant Officer Roussel. “The honour and the privilege of being there to witness this anniversary – you’re standing there in the rain, the cold and the train whistle sounding as it goes by during the ceremony. That’s all the same as it was 70 years ago. “It is almost surreal. You don’t realize you’re there until you breathe the same air and walk the same ground. It was very humbling to be there.”

With files from Sara Keddy, editor of The Aurora newspaper, 14 Wing Greenwood, Nova Scotia. Recommended reading: The Great Escape: A Canadian Story by Ted Barris

Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article stated Roger Bushell was sent to Belaria. I have taken that line out after informed by family members of the escapers. They noted that Roger escaped in G.E. and was murdered for it by the Gestapo. I also informed the RCAF public affairs and they have made the change on their website.

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